The Investigation Into The Murder Of Nikki Woods
by RTds9
Summary: A Law and Order BTVS Crossover.NYC Homicide Detective Lennie Briscoe tells his partner a story about one of his first cases.A story about a murdered woman found in a subway car.


I don't know if they had ever said when Lennie became a cop or a homicide detective on Law and Order.So I fudged the dates a little.So please don't fuss to much over it.

Rating-PG

Disclaimer-I own nothing of Law and Order or Buffy

NEW YORK CITY

POLICE STATION

11:50 AM

Lennie Brisco was sitting at his desk and was so into reading the folder that he was holding, that he completely missed the first two times his name was called out. It wasn't until his partner Detective Ed Green touched him on the shoulder did Lennie realize someone was trying to talk to him.

"Huh, what?" Lennie asked lifting his head up and turning to see his partner standing there next to him.

"I asked whether or not you wanted to have lunch delivered here or since it's slow maybe go out and go somewhere to eat," said Ed as he sat down in his desk that was directly across from Lennie's desk.

"Oh no thanks I grabbed something out of one of the machines," said Lennie as he took one hand off the folder to pick up a half eaten burrito that was no doubt cold by now and showed it to his partner.

"You do know that those things are full of salt and other very unhealthy preservativesthat will more than likely kill you right?" asked Ed shaking his head at his partners unhealthy lunch choice.

"Yeah right," said Lennie smirking as he looked up from the folder "And you don't think maybe the decade I spent drinking myself under every bar in this town won't kill me first?"

"Touché" said Detective Green smiling. But now his curiosity was peaked and so he wanting to know just what it was that had had his partner full attention.

"You know I couldn't help but notice how you've had your nose buried in that thing all day, what is it?" Green asked pointing to the folder.

"It's just an old case file from a homicide that I once worked on years ago ," said Lennie looking up with haunted eyes "It was the first case in my career where I never caught the bastard who committed the murder."

"Can I?" asked Green with one hand held out.

"Knock yourself out," said Lennie passing the folder over to him "Maybe a new set of eyes might find something I missed."

"1977!" said Ed looking up from the folder in surprise.

"Yes, 1977. Gees you don't have to make it sound like that was ancient times or something," said Lennie rolling his eyes.

"Yeah but 1977," said Ed smiling "I was only eight years old than."

"Shut up," said Lennie going to grab the folder from out of his partner's hand "If you must know it was my first year as a Homicide Detective."

"Ok ok I'm sorry," said Ed laughing but still held onto the folder and went back to reading it "Nikkie Woods, eighteen, African American found dead in a subway car with a broken neck."

"Yeah some sick bastard held her to the ground and snapped her neck killing her instantly," said Lennie still just as angry today as he was that first day he started investigating the murder almost thirty years ago.

"Says here that the first cops on the scene thought her death might have been gang related." said Ed reading the file.

"They thought that due to the fact that the subway car she was found in seemed to have been ripped apart," said Lennie "From the looks of it a small war had been waged in that thing. So they thought that there must have been a full scale gang fight involved. There was just no way that two ordinary people could have done that much damage in there."

"Well, what did you find out about her personal life?" asked Ed "Anybody there looked like a good suspect.

"Let me tell you the more I looked into her background the more confused I became about her," said Lennie shaking his head "Her residence was a rundown apartment complex in Harlem but she and her son spent most of their time in a home in Queens that was owned by a man by the name of Bernard Crowley."

"Boyfriend?" asked Ed looking up from the folder.

"No" said Lennie shaking his head "He was an older guy. In his late forties at the time.He was also British."

"That doesn't mean anything Lennie," said Ed smiling "It was the seventies. Disco, cocaine everwhere and all kinds of people trying out new lifestyles. Maybe the two of them had some type of Young Girl Sugar Daddy relationship going."

"Yeah I did kind of think that at first," said Lennie "But Crowley strongly denied that there was anything remotely sexually between them."

"And you belived him?"

"Yeah after some time I did," said Lennie nodding "He kept saying over and over again that she was more like a daughter to him. He even adopted Nikki's five year old son after her death and raised him."

"Hum," said Green but than found something in the file that peaked his interest "Well this is weird."

"What?" asked Lennie hoping that his partner might have found something that would help break the case.

"Well it seems that the whole time that Crowley lived in the US he worked as a lowly assistant curator at a small museum in Manhattan.One that specialized in ancient mythology.That's not something that would make a man rich. But a check of his bank records showed that every month there was a nice chunk of money wired to his account from an upscale bank in England."

"Yeah I asked him about that," said Lennie.

"And?"

"And he said that it was nothing illegal about it. He told me that he came from a wealthy familyand the money came from a trust fund that they had set up for him years ago when he was kid. I looked into it and it checked out."

"Ok" said Ed pointing to a page in the file "What's this about the victim being some kind of local vigilante?"

"Well it was never proven," said Lennie "But there had been an unprecedented upswing in assaults and murders that year. Victims found with unusual neck wounds that left them completely without blood in their body."

"I remember that," said Ed snapping his fingers "The news said something about animal attacks.But some people at my mother's church thought that it was Satanists taking the blood and using it for some type of Satanic rituals or something of that nature."

"Yeah we investigated that angle along with the reports that it was some type of group with severe facial disfigurements that were committing the attacks and murders," said Lennie "But we never found any evidence that either one of those thing were happening.Hell we found no evidence that showed that any of the murders were even conected with one another."

"So what did any of that have to do with Nikki Woods?" asked Ed confused.

"Well when police investigated a lot of the reports of the attacks that didn't involve deaths a lot of the victims reported to have been saved by a black woman in a long black leather coat.Reports said that she would appear from out of no where and stop the attacks.She would than take on the attacker allowing the intended victims time to flee. Many of the descriptions we got from eyewitnesses matched Nikki Woods description."

"So you think maybe she tried to stop another one of these attacks in that subway car but this time she came out on the bad end of it?" asked Ed.

"That was one of the general ideas at the time," said Lennie "But like I said we couldn't find anyone in her background or from the area of the killing who was a viable suspect for her murder."

"Well maybe if we go and talk to Crowley now he might remember something he forgot. Where is he now?" asked Ed leafing through the folder trying to find the information.

"Dead" said Lennie "Heart attack nineteen nighty-four. Buried in London in some kind of well to do exclusive cemetery there."

"And her son?"

"Last time I checked he was living out in California in some small town called Sunnyville,Sunnydale or something like that. Working as a high school principle.I think."

"It's hard to believe that with all the men that were on this case and you guys never found anything on her murder," said Ed still going through the folder.

"Look damn it I busted my ass on that case alright!" said Lennie slamming his hand down hard on his desk causing many in the station house to look their way "But ever time I tried to talk to Crowley all he did was give me the run around. I could tell that he was covering up something and trying to hide it from me! I just never found out what it was!"

"Sorry Lennie I didn't mean anything by it," said Ed holding his hands up in surrender.

"I know I know," sighed Lennie "But it seemed that everywhere we turned we found nothing. And it seemed that every question I asked Crowley he gave me an answer that did nothing but give me two more questions. Than four months later the Son Of Sam killings started and the big wigs upstairs assigned us to help with that.And so Nikkie Wood's murder case was banished to the cold case files."

"And that's where it's been sitting gathering dust and unsolved for almost thirty years," said Lennie "But every once and awhile I like to take it out and go over it.And each time I hope that this will be the time I catch something I missed. Something that will help me nail the bastard who did this to her."

"Maybe this time it will," said Ed while handing the file back over to Lennie "You know since it's slow here maybe we could go out and start looking into..."

But that was all Detective Green got out before his and Lennie's boss Lieutenant Van Buren came over to their desks.

"We got a double homicide down on the waterfront," said Van Buren handing them the location and other information.

"Oh great another fun day of tromping down by the East River," sighed Lennie "And I just got my shoes cleaned.Not to mention that the smell alone will probably kill us."

"Have fun Lennie," laughed Van Buren as she headed back to her office.

But before leaving the station house Lennie took one last look at the folder that was sitting on his desk. He had hoped that during this unusually slow time at work he might have the time to go through it. But sadly worked called.

Sighing Lennie grabbed his jacket and headed out the door hoping that it wouldn't be another thirty years before Nikkie Woods murder was solved.

THE END  
(RIP Jerry Orbach always my favorite from Law And Order)


End file.
